November 30, 2016

New President, new policies and the re-emergence of
America’s energy industry mean that you video guys will once again be busy.
From training films to product demos to investor presentations, we at CSS Music
predict there will be a boon in energy-related shows. Be it coal, gas or the
Keystone Pipeline out of Alaska, video will play a huge role in the energy
industry.

As we’ve said before, we’re the guys that built our music
library primarily for the corporate-industrial AV/Video crowd. Back in 198?
when CSS Music founder Mike Fuller began Creative Support Services, the mission
was to “support” the in-house or freelance corporate show producer with a
steady diet of quality music designed for presentations. In fact, we’re one of
the few libraries that offer long form (five minutes or more) music with our
MaxTrax library. And this library was born via requests from our AV/Video clients!

Corporate-industrial music has of course evolved from the
early years of Creative Support Services. Yet our continued commitment to
service your industry hasn’t waivered. If you click on the Business/Industrial
link from our Hand Picked Genre homepage, you’ll see that CSS Music has kept
the “pipeline” flowing with over 2,000 tracks in this genre. Of course you may
have a specific idea on what your show needs. Using our Keyword Alpha List you
can hone your search quickly by using the drop-down menus. We also highly
recommend trying our Search By Library feature to audition the music from Super
Themes, PowerTrax and the aforementioned MaxTrax.

If we’re right and the energy sector of the American economy
explodes, you will find a “well” of “energy music” for your next show right
here at CSS Music!

November 22, 2016

You’ve got a scene that is, or has the potential to be
funny.All you need is the right
underscore music to hit the mark. At CSS Music we’ve made distinctions between
Cute, Comedy, Cartoon, Fun, Humorous and Quirky. In fact, we just released a
new PowerTrax disc entitled “Funny Ha Ha and Happy.”

So what’s the difference between these styles? A track like
“Drunk Clown” on the “Funny Ha Ha…” volume is somewhat explanatory—circus music
with touches of cartoon punctuation. This track is great for those comedic
scenes where you speed up video 2X or 4X ala Keystone Cops. Or like on
America’s Funniest Home Videos.

But what if you need something subtler? Maybe a scene where
someone is up to no good and your audience knows it? Project Platinum’s volume
19 “Light ‘n Easy II” contains “Sneaky Senorita” featuring pizzicato strings
and Spanish guitar—perfect for just that scenario. This type of track is now
being referred to as “dramady” since it only hints at comedy. While we haven’t
yet included the term in keywords, you’ll find what you’re after within our
other search words.

If you DO need more of a cartoon vibe, we suggest you scroll
down our Keyword Search page to the Keyword Alpha List and select Cartoon from
the A-G dropdown menu. There you will find 15 pages of some very creative cartoon
music from a number of our composers. From “Cartoon Crazy” in Digital Ditties
to “Inspector 12” and “Comedy Animals” in RepoFile Potpourri to “Cat Burger
Lar” and “Plucky Pleasure” in Project Platinum, CSS Music has music to make you
and your viewers smile! Our goal is to offer the styles of music you most often
need and in the right balance to your overall production schedule. We hope
you’ll give the tracks we’ve mentioned a listen!

November 15, 2016

When you’re faced with the quandary of finding “something
different” to underscore a scene, CSS Music suggests an idea often used in
motion pictures: the solo instrumental. Be it a solo trumpet evoking a sad
battlefield moment, a scratchy, poorly played violin for humor or an acoustic
guitar capturing the mood of a sleepy Mexican town, the power and intimacy of a
single instrument will offer your shows a unique color palette.

What does the solo instrumental have over a more fleshed out
piece of music? The first thing is emotion and identification. Think about the
movie “The Sting” and Marvin Hamlisch’s excellent score that revolved around
Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” played on an out-of-tune upright piano. From
the opening credits, you know immediately you’re watching a tongue-in-cheek
period film. The other powerful aspect is your ability to ride the gain more
easily. You never have to worry about a big drum fill or dweedle guitar solo
interrupting a mood you’ve established. Finally, depending on the length of
your scene, you can fade, edit to ending or loop this type of track in a myriad
of different ways.

If you would like to explore the CSS Music library of solo
instruments simply scroll down our homepage to Keyword Alpha List. Under the
Keywords R-Z you’ll find Solo Instrumentals with 14 pages of various
instruments and moods. The solo instrument track won’t work in every situation.
But when you want to perk up your viewer’s ears with something more emotionally
focused that immediately establishes mood, nothing does it like a single
instrumental!

November 10, 2016

What exactly is a corporate presentation today? Is it Apple
introducing a new product with hip alt folk music? Or Northwestern Mutual presenting
their annual stockholder’s report using traditional orchestral music? Or maybe Harley-Davidson
introduces a new motorcycle via a walk-through video utilizing a Southern Rock
influenced underscore? What exactly makes these different music styles
“corporate?”

The tried and true formula of the typical corporate track is
a big intro that quickly drops to a rhythmic groove with a slow melodic
thematic over the groove. The reason behind this is simple: most shows open
with graphics followed by narration. Oftentimes, key changes are written into
the arrangement to allow the narration to change bullet points or moods. The
corporate track usually closes with a big build allowing closing graphics. Wham
bam thank you ma’am, hope you enjoyed the show!

We at CSS Music want to take a moment to brag: we’ve been
supplying corporate-industrial music for over 30 years and feel this genre of
music sometimes gets short shrift. What used to be “tympani and French horn
music” has now evolved into a genre as diverse as the colors of the rainbow.
While we continue to refine the traditional “corporate sound,” CSS Music is
also developing hybrid styles that incorporate elements from hip hop, house,
rock, electronica, dubstep and many others.

If you look at our Hand Picked Genre/Category Hot List on
the CSS Music/Zero Fee/Dawn Music websites, you’ll notice we have only one
category, Business/Industrial that links to the type of music you’d typically
choose for corporate presentations. But you’ll notice there are 175
pages for your corporate presentation pleasure. You’ll find a plethora
of styles all having the commonality of working well in
corporate/industrial/business presentations.

For you as an editor or music supervisor we encourage you to
explore our website. With various search options, we think you’ll discover
music that will enhance your presentations quickly. But if you want to confine
your search to strictly corporate-industrial, using our Search By Library will
yield tons of great tracks from all our libraries! Happy hunting!

November 02, 2016

Remember the good ol’ days when Rock ‘n Roll meant (usually)
a four piece band with guitars, bass and drums? Introduced by Bill Hailey and
The Comets, Elvis, Buddy Holly and later refined by the Beatles and the Stones,
Rock became an integral part of our lives. Then came the psychedelic era
introduced by guitar legend Jimi Hendrix and bands like Jefferson Airplane. As
the 1970’s matured, a new Soft Rock sound became the staple of Pop
radio. And while this was happening, the musician-centric Progressive Rock
style was being heard on the expanded FM radio band along with a Hard Rock sound
from the likes of AC/DC, Cheap Trick and Arrowsmith.

Through the 1980’s and into the late 1990’s more and more
styles of Rock appeared on the scene. Punk, Electro, Grunge, Alternative, Speed
Metal and Heavy Metal are only a handful of the new brands introduced to the
world. And all styles being as different as can be!

So you have a project that needs some energy and you need to
decide which Rock style will best serve your scene. Hmmm. How long is a piece
of string? Seriously, you might be surprised that a track from CSS Music’s
Super Themes Volume 59 “Rock and Urban Muscle” might work great for a fashion
show…or fishing show! Or a track from Project Platinum’s Techo Meat Rock might
be a perfect match to a number of action scenes. It will probably boil down to
tempo and arrangement. If your scene has a lot of dialog, something groove
oriented will make the most sense. If you’re cutting together action, go for
that track with the screaming guitar solo!

CSS Music pays homage to many great Rock styles as well as keeping
up with the new trends as they appear on the scene. When you’re looking for
Rock, we suggest you check out our Keyword Search page and Hand Picked Genres.
With selections from various Rock genres, we think you’ll find the perfect
track in a matter of minutes. Rock on, Wayne! J